Zero Calling returns with its Asian Television Award-winning leading man

SINGAPORE — Zero Calling, the show that earned Pierre Png a Best Actor award at the Asian Television Awards last year, is returning for a second season. And its leading man couldn’t be happier about that. Not just because it’s on an English-language channel, but because he doesn’t really have to act — he’s just sort of being himself, Png revealed.“I’m pretty much myself when I play (the main character) David. The character is full of love and hatred at the same time. It’s borderline the real Pierre Png,” the 41-year-old said, with a wry smile.This season, David is jobless and destitute after being manipulated by the mysterious Zero (played by Lawrence Wong) into becoming a vigilante killer. His wife Julie (Cynthia Koh) and stepdaughter Maddy (Hayley Woo) have left him. Foiling his efforts to get his life back on track, Interpol agents (new cast members Janice Koh and Shabir) reel him back into the fight against the sinister and faceless Zero Legion, an online collective of people calling themselves Zero.When we caught up with Png just as filming was wrapping, we found him really enjoying the process. “These months that I’ve been on set, I’m as happy as a bird,” he said. “It’s good that I could relate to the character; that I could channel my inner frustrations or happiness into this character.”In what ways is he just being himself when he plays David? “The fortunate or unfortunate thing is, I’m very intense. I’m very passionate about a lot of the things I do or the things I get involved in. In this day and age, a lot of it has to be controlled. You can’t really go around being a vigilante and taking the law into your own hands. I can understand how a character like David could be very frustrated and feel very cooped up (about the fact) that justice is not done; the good people suffer and the bad people get away with murder.”He added, with a wink: “I think David’s a Scorpio.”And when was the last time he was tempted to exact vigilante justice on someone? “This is really silly but the other day, I saw someone throwing a cigarette butt out of his car window. He was driving in front of me. If the situation had presented itself — if we had both stopped at a traffic light side by side — I was going to go up to him, knock on his window and say, ‘Could you go back and pick it up?’”Co-star Lawrence Wong isn’t convinced that Png is all that intense, though. “No leh, he’s quite goofy! In between takes, he’s quite a joker. We play around with the props. And you know how Janice looks very stern? Janice is also quite goofy — but in a stern way,” he laughed.In any case, the show will certainly be intense. “You can expect a lot more fights, a lot more action, a lot more gore,” Png teased.

May Seah

Catch the second season of Zero Calling starting April 27, Mondays at 9.30pm on MediaCorp TV Channel 5.﻿﻿